Listed For Sale

The Material Girl may soon be the Floridian girl.Several real estate agents in Miami say rock superstar Madonna has been house shopping in the city, and one said she may be close to buying a home owned by Burdines executive James E. Gray.''It is pretty far along,'' said the agent, who asked not to be identified. ''I believe there has been an offer.''The six-bedroom home, built in 1928, is not listed for sale. Gray bought the home in 1988 for $2.15 million.

The number of new multifamily properties — mostly townhomes and condominiums — listed for sale was down 14 percent in the Orlando area during the first quarter from a year earlier, according to a new report by Charles Wayne Consulting . The real-estate research firm reported 459 units listed during the quarter, down from 531 a year earlier. The average price of the units rose 14 percent to $214,200 during that time. "The multifamily for-sale segment of the market has gone through considerable transition over the last 10 years," said Jim Lewis, president of the consulting group.

- FOR SALE? Rumors abound in the restaurant business, and the latest is that Bailey's City Side, a restaurant and bar at 17 W. Church St. in downtown Orlando, is up for sale and employees are being laid off. Half true, says owner Jim Fitzgerald. The restaurant is being listed for sale, Fitzgerald says, but that's something he does periodically to test the market. As for cutbacks, he says, there has been none since 14 workers lost their jobs late last year when Bailey's stopped serving lunch.

Winter Park developer Dan Bellows has listed for sale his 75-acre Ravaudage development, one of the largest urban-style, mixed-use projects in the Orlando area. The project, at Lee Road and U.S. Highway 17-92 in Winter Park, started to take shape in 2012. Bellows spent years purchasing lots and small pieces of land, and then going through a protracted government-approval process. After the opening of Miller's Ale House early last year, development there has slowed. Bellows has already sold a piece of the Ravaudage property to Orlando-based Unicorp, which has plans for an 18,000-square-foot, two-story Gardens at Ravaudage.

Sales of existing homes in metropolitan Orlando fell 3.4 percent in June. The area's housing market continued to lag last year's pace despite declining mortgage interest rates. The inventory of properties listed for sale in the three-county area also continued to grow in June, remaining above the 10,000 level for the fourth consecutive month. The Orlando Area Board of Realtors' Multiple Listing Service, which passed the 10,000 level in March, had 10,759 listings at the end of June. Resales totaled 622 in June compared with 641 in May, according to the Realtors' listing service.

Planning a remodeling job is a lot of fun. If it's done well, it also can save you money. The trade publication Remodeling has a number of tips:Take a few minutes to take a hard look at the whole house. What do you like about it, and why? What do you dislike, and why? Ask other household members the same questions. You might be surprised to find that they have different ideas about what should be done to improve the house.Sit down with the answers and make a list of things to change, add or take away.

The most expensive house listed for $193,439. It sold for $189,604 after 76 days on the market. The 3-bedroom, 2-bath block-and-stucco house was built in 2002. It has 2,215 square feet, a formal dining room, a kitchen/family room combination, most appliances, central heat and air with a heat recovery unit, a 2-car garage, a covered patio and a sprinkler system. The least expensive house listed for $29,900. It sold for $28,500 after 30 days on the market. The 2-bedroom, 1-bath frame house was built in 1930 and has 600 square feet.

Question: I own a condo that has been rented to the same tenant for 13 years. I now want to sell it. I offered it to the tenant, but he lacks the funds. I am ready to list it for sale with a local real estate agent. I drafted a letter to my tenant, informing him of my intent to sell. The agent and I believe we can give him 24 hours notice before showing the condo to prospective buyers. There is no lease or rent control involved. Is there anything I need to do before listing? Answer: I'm surprised your agent didn't suggest giving the tenant notice to move out before the condo is listed for sale.

The most expensive house listed for $480,000. It sold for $488,651 after 108 days on the market. The 4-bedroom, 4-bath block-and-stucco house was built in 2001 and has 3,700 square feet, a whirlpool bath and separate shower in the master bath, a breakfast room, a formal dining room, a family room, a study, a foyer, a bonus room, zoned central heat and air with heat pump, pond frontage, a 3-car attached garage with opener, an in-ground pool and a gated...

Houses listed for sale on the Internet are more expensive than the average house on the market in the United States, according to a new monthly survey by HomeGain, an internet company geared toward sellers. The average price of a house listed on the Internet in December was $217,660, which is $46,000 more expensive than the average asking price in the country, as reported by the National Association of Realtors. The Southeast had the nation's least expensive prices, with an average of $176,846.

The Ma Barker hideout, site of the longest shootout in FBI history, drew more international publicity than solid offers when it was recently scheduled for auction, and it is now being listed for sale. Located just north of Central Florida in Ocklawaha, the two-story house was slated to be auctioned Oct. 5, but the event was canceled when real estate agents said their clients were cool to the $1 million starting bid, said Roger Soderstrom, broker for listing agent Stirling Sothebys Real Estate.

The South Beach estate where designer Gianni Versace was murdered is on the market for a stunning $125 million. The 19,000-square-foot "Casa Casuarina" has 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a huge swimming pool and is "lined in 24-karat gold," Jill Eber and Jill Hertzberg, the real estate agents who scored the luxury listing, said in a statement Friday. Versace was killed outside the Ocean Drive mansion in 1997. Peter Loftin bought it for $19 million in 2000, records show. He maintained Versace's elaborate designs, Eber and Hertzberg said.

Home buyers in Orlando, one of the country's foreclosure hotspots, found themselves with fewer houses from which to choose in April than at any time since the end of 2005, according to a new report by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. Resale prices for homes in the core Orlando market rose 3 percent from March to April, to a midpoint of $105,000, as the inventory of properties for sale shrank by more than 1,000 houses during the month. The one-month price increase in the core market (mainly Orange and Seminole counties)

Orlando's existing-home sales ended their worst year since 1997 showing some signs of life, as the number of deals completed in December was up from a year earlier -- the fourth straight month of such gains. The bump was driven by falling prices and lower interest rates. The Orlando Regional Realtor Association said Monday that its members sold 1,305 homes, town houses and condominium units last month -- 21 percent more than in December 2007, when the market was in the midst of a deep downturn.

Question: If a listing agent buys a house he has listed for sale, is it common practice for that agent to receive a sales commission? Answer: When a listing agent buys his or her own listing, that agent's broker usually wants part of the sales commission that would be earned if the listed house were sold to a third party. However, the listing agent usually prefers a reduced sales price or discount so the listing agent doesn't owe income tax on any sales commission. There was a recent California Court of Appeals decision on this issue (Horning v. Shilberg, 29 Cal.Rptr.

Question: I am considering selling the home I bought 30 years ago. The property consists of two adjoining lots. My home rests on one of the lots and is probably worth about $450,000. The empty adjoining lot is probably worth $225,000. How can I best dispose of both properties? If I sell them separately, will I owe a huge capital-gains tax on the lot sale? Answer: You can sell them separately and each sale will qualify for the Internal Revenue Code 121 principal-residence-sale tax exemption up to $250,000 (up to $500,000 if you and your spouse each qualify and file a joint tax return in the year of sale)

If you're shopping for houses in the $90,000 to $100,000 price range, be prepared for the competition. For most of 2000, houses listed for sale in that price range sold the fastest and had the least amount of wiggle room for buyers to negotiate, according to an October report by the Orlando Regional Realtors Association. Consider that on average, houses listed for sale in Orange and Seminole counties took 57 days to sell during the first 10 months of the year, but houses priced just under $100,000 sold in an average of 43 days.

Orlando area resales may have dropped 16 percent from June to July, but the houses that are selling are going faster than ever. On average, houses that sold in July lasted only 48 days on the market. That is the shortest period of time for houses to be listed for sale in years. A year earlier, houses sold in an average of 70 days. Meanwhile, the area had 5,418 houses listed for sale, which is the most since May 1999, according to a report by the Greater Orlando Association of Realtors.

Question: My house is listed for sale with a real estate broker. But my wife and I found a potential buyer without the help of our listing agent. This buyer has not consulted a realty agent to inspect our home. All the contact has been direct with me and my wife. If we terminate our listing contract with our agent, which we can do at any time according to the contract, and sell our home to this buyer, will we still owe our agent a sales commission? Our current arrangement is a 5 percent sales commission with 3 percent going to the agent who brings in an acceptable buyer.

Question: About 20 years ago, my mother and I bought a house together. She lived in the house. We each paid half the mortgage, property tax and repair expenses. My mother passed away recently. As per our title arrangement, the house becomes my property. I plan to sell it within six months. What is the process for gaining title in my name only? Should I do this now or wait until the house is sold? For tax purposes, do I use the stepped-up market value or the original purchase price? Answer: If you and your late mother held title in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, all that is usually required to clear your mother's name from the title is to record a certified copy of her death certificate and an affidavit of survivorship.